Deal to sell idled Boxwood plant could mean thousands of jobs

Ed Flowers grew up knowing workers at the former General Motors plant on Boxwood Road. Whoever buys the property should put in a business that hires "blue-collar" workers, he said.
Karl Baker/THE NEWS JOURNAL

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Harvey Hanna & Associates said their subsidiary Boxwood Industrial Park LLC will become the official owner of the 142-acre site at 801 Boxwood Road.(Photo: Jennifer Corbett/The News Journal)Buy Photo

The announcement confirms a report from The News Journal in August, which first revealed that a deal was in the works to transfer the property from Wanxiang America to Newport-based Harvey Hanna & Associates.

Wanxiang, a car parts manufacturer whose parent company is based in China, had listed the facility for sale in 2016, sparking debate among New Castle County area politicians about its future.

Some envisioned a distribution center, noting the facility's convenient linkages to transportation networks. An industrial rail line is already on site, and it is situated with easy access to I-95, I-495, the Port of Wilmington and Philadelphia and New Castle airports. Products shipped from the site could reach the New York City and Washington markets in under two hours.

New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer in 2016 said private sector demand should decide the fate of the facility.

On Monday, he said he would be open to offering county tax incentives to help redevelop the site, noting that it would raise its property value.

"It's an exciting turn of events to get Boxwood into local hands," Meyer said. Harvey Hanna "has a history of being committed to the county and the state."

In Monday's statement, Harvey Hanna officials said their subsidiary, Boxwood Industrial Park, LLC, will become the listed owner of the site at 801 Boxwood Road.

The limited liability company was created in May, according to state records.

Anchor of Delaware manufacturing

Built in 1946, the Boxwood Road site and its 3 million square feet of manufacturing space served as a General Motors assembly plant until 2009, when it closed and laid off hundreds of workers during the height of the Great Recession.

GM in the 1980s employed more than 5,000 people at the auto assembly facility. Thousands more worked 12 miles away at a Newark Chrysler plant, which closed in 2008.

Electric vehicle entrepreneur Henrik Fisker in 2010 promised a return of thousands of manufacturing jobs to the Newport facility after he received more than $20 million in state economic development money. Plans to build a line of electric sports cars in Delaware failed when his battery supplier filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Fisker Automotive's bankruptcy came soon after, leading to Wanxiang Americas to purchase the company's $149 million in assets, which included the shuttered Newport plant.

In the years since, Fisker created a new electric vehicle company that is based in California. Asked in July if he would consider expanding into Delaware if the company is successful, Fisker said, "Yeah, why not?"

The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in August stood at 4.9 percent up from 4.3 percent a year earlier. The non-adjusted rate for August was 5.1 percent.

In Monday's statement, Harvey Hanna President Thomas Harvey said the company's planned redevelopment of the Boxwood Road plant would "create thousands of jobs during construction and thousands more well-paying permanent jobs.”

While additional details were not disclosed, Delaware real estate broker Pete Davisson, who keeps a close eye on real estate deals in the state, said “the plan as I understand it is to convert it to a multi-tenanted industrial building."

Davisson said the final purchase price of the Boxwood plant could determine how ambitious its redevelopment plans ultimately are.

"It's all numbers," said Davisson, a founder at Jackson Cross Partners. "What am I going to spend to buy it? What am I going to spend to bring it up to date? And, then what am I going to be able to lease it for?"

Davisson and other prominent Delaware business officials noted that Harvey Hanna's reputation makes them confident the company will have the necessary capital to carry out the redevelopment.

"I have no doubt that they will be able to convert it to a very functional, usable property," Davisson said. "They're one of the more reputable, more conservative development firms in Delaware."

Thomas J. Hanna, chief operating officer of the company, said in the company statement that the firm has extensive experience redeveloping manufacturing sites, and pointed to the Twin Spans Business Park in New Castle.

“We are thrilled for the opportunity to return this facility to productive uses that bring in quality companies and quality jobs at livable wages,” Hanna said.

The Twin Spans Business Park, a massive 11-building complex off Wilmington Road in New Castle, once was a manufacturing facility for Chicago Bridge and Iron. It was purchased by Harvey Hanna & Associates in 1998 and redeveloped into 2 million square feet of industrial warehouse, distribution and office space.

More than 1,000 people work at the 135-acre site.

On its website, Harvey Hanna states that it is the largest private industrial landlord in Delaware, where it rents to Zenith, Agilent Technologies and Iron Mountain, among other companies. It also owns and leases office space and retail properties.